Wielding a Sword Across Mountains and Rivers

[The author's completed historical romance, I Refuse to Be a Virtuous Wife, is also available in the author's column. Come give it a try!]

[Lighthearted blurb]

Years later, Shui Chu crossed mountains and rivers to visit the person she'd loved as a child, only to discover that her sweetheart wanted her dead.

Oh, well. Who didn't fall for a jerk when they were young and naive?

Shui Chu turned around without a care and planned to continue roaming the martial world, righting wrongs and becoming a famous heroine.

But why had she suddenly become the enemy of the entire martial world? Could it be because of the man with the character for “back” written above his head

Shui Chu: “You're gorgeous, but I've decided I can't keep calling you Handsome Xie. I need a new nickname!”

Xie Changli: “Call me big brother!”

“Big mold!”

“Big sister?”

“Big mold, as in bad luck!”

[Serious blurb]

Branded a demonic villain of the martial world, Shui Chu weaves through the blades and shadows of the righteous factions.

Her father's old friends do everything they can to bring her back to the righteous path, but she only strays farther toward the demonic side, determined to follow Xie Changli, a disciple of the great demon.

Because when she was trapped in a desperate situation all those years ago, it was that aloof young man who carved a path through every obstacle for her with his frail body and showed her a ray of light in the long night.

With dust in her hair and blood staining her snowy cheeks, Shui Chu calmly wiped it away.

A white robe and frosty sword, deep red with blood; I defy the right path for one person. [1]

[Notes]

1. The story begins when the heroine is a child, and her childhood takes up a relatively long portion of the book, about one-seventh. She grows up in Chapter 46.

2. Slow burn. The hero appears late, first in Chapter 15 as a boy, then again in Chapter 48 as an adult. If you don't have the patience, you can start there.

3. One-on-one romance, both leads are virgins, happy ending, multiple secondary couples. The author considers it a serious, dramatic story.

[1] This line is adapted from the lyrics of Gui Li: “Wipe away the dust / White robes stained deep with blood / One stroke leaves no trace / Who asks / Where the old friend has gone / For whom does one defy the right path?”

[Coming soon: The Treacherous Chancellor Can't Escape His Fate] Please add it to your reading list:

Shi Miaoyan lost both her parents at a young age and lived at the mercy of others. Though beautiful as an orchid, she had neither wealth nor influence, and finding a suitable marriage was difficult.

Then, as if a pie had fallen from the sky, the young chief minister Lu Yichuan came to ask for her hand. “I hear the eldest daughter of the Shi family is gentle, virtuous, and peerless in beauty and character. I have long admired her and would like to take her as my wife.”

Lu Yichuan was powerful and extraordinarily handsome. Every noblewoman in the capital was smitten with him, but none dared approach him because the Grand Princess had announced that she intended to make him her prince consort.

Who could have guessed that instead of marrying the princess, he would take a lowly Shi girl as his wife?

After they married, Lu Yichuan was gentle and attentive. Everyone envied Shi Miaoyan for her good fortune, and she felt fortunate, too. She dutifully cared for his parents and managed the household, quietly letting Lu Yichuan into her heart.

Until the day Lu Yichuan personally sent her off in the carriage of the Grand Princess's diplomatic marriage party. Only then did she understand that it had all been a lie.

His supposed admiration and proposal had only been a way to send her to die in place of the princess he loved.

Everyone called Lu Yichuan a treacherous chancellor who would bring ruin to the country: ruthless, decisive, and willing to do anything to achieve his aims. His refined manners were nothing but a mask.

To provoke war between two nations, he even sent his own wife to the state of Dazhao in the Grand Princess's place, giving himself an excuse to declare war on Dazhao.

Shi Miaoyan, sent in the princess's stead, was stabbed to death, and her body vanished without a trace. The real princess, whose appearance was remarkably similar to Shi Miaoyan's, took over her identity and became Lady Lu, just as she'd wished.

But no one knew that whenever night fell and all was quiet, Lu Yichuan remembered the day beneath the red plum tree, when Shi Miaoyan had looked back at him through the snow and smiled brilliantly, breathtakingly beautiful.

As time stretched on, she became the lingering ache and burning pang in his heart that would never fade.

Seven years later, Lu Yichuan accompanied the emperor on an inspection tour to the west. Amid the boundless yellow sands, he recognized at a glance the woman who had haunted his dreams.

Mist veiled the pale sky, and the sunset shimmered. Her beauty was unmatched, radiant as a sky full of rosy clouds.

Lu Yichuan pulled her into his arms, his voice choked with emotion. “A Yan, thank goodness you're alive. I'll take you home.”

The woman slowly plunged a dagger into his chest and smiled. “The evil still walks among the living. How could I go to my grave first?”

She didn't know that beneath the cruel demon's mask he'd worn for so long was a heart just as passionate and bleeding as hers.

He smiled and pushed the dagger deeper. “Yanyan, if I'm a demon, then let me follow you into hell.”

Notre-Dame de Paris: “I want to descend into your hell, but you won't accept me, a sinner!”

Note: A groveling-after-the-breakup story. Don't read if that's not your thing.

[Coming soon: What Should I Do After I Seduce the Crown Prince?] Please add it to your reading list:

Baiyun Academy had three treasures: peach-blossom wine from the back hill, rare books in the library, and Xie Yunhuan, the headmaster's only daughter.

As the academy's little troublemaker, the thing Ah Huan regretted most in her life was hitting the new poor scholar with an abacus in a shower of peach blossoms

His blue-green robes were stained with blood, but he smiled like a spring mountain. The sight sent the romance novel she'd hidden in her sleeve, The Domineering Prince Falls in Love with Me, tumbling to the ground.

“Yuan Lie, a runaway apprentice from the blacksmith's shop. Nineteen years old, dirt poor, hardworking, with no wife, concubines, or maids in his bedchamber.” Ah Huan counted the young man's long, distinct knuckles as she cornered him by the book-drying racks. “What a coincidence. My father says the academy needs a live-in son-in-law. You'll marry me in three years. Want to give it a try?”

He committed every hobby she'd made up to memory.

He drank the peach-blossom wine she'd brewed terribly with a calm smile, downing it in one go.

She taught him to read the stars and understand the heavens; he disguised himself as a girl to help her skip class.

She took him climbing onto roofs and swimming in rivers to catch fish; he stayed up all night copying the academy's rules for her.

Every day, Ah Huan sighed, “Oh, heavens, this live-in husband of mine is just too perfect!”

Then one day, she accidentally overheard Yuan Lie talking with his cousin, who had traveled a thousand miles to find him, and learned that her prospective live-in husband was the current Crown Prince, Chu Yuanlie.

Ah Huan was thunderstruck.

She wanted nothing to do with the royal family. After discussing it with her parents, the whole family packed up their valuables in the middle of the night and fled in the dark, bringing along her unfinished Guide to Avoiding Disaster:

1. Treasure your life; stay away from the palace.

2. How to ditch the Crown Prince with grace.

3. If you're caught, pretend you have amnesia on the spot.

But she couldn't outrun the Eastern Palace's eight hundred hidden guards

That day, the clamor of iron armor rang outside the mountain gate. The live-in husband she'd rejected countless times sat in a dragon-crested carriage, dressed in black robes and a gold crown, handsome as jade. The ugly gourd-shaped pouch she'd embroidered for him was still tied at his waist.

“Xie Yunhuan, do you know the penalty for tricking the Eastern Palace into a marriage?”

“You've mistaken me for someone else. I'm not Xie Yunhuan. I'm her twin sister!”

“Oh? Then where is Xie Yunhuan?”

“Unfortunately, she fell into the water last month and drowned!”

Chu Yuanlie's eyes blazed. His knuckles turned white as he clenched his fists, and he said ominously, “Guards, tie the Crown Princess up and take her back to the Eastern Palace for the wedding!”

When blue-green robes turn into imperial robes, and abacus beads become a phoenix crown

“Ah Huan, all this land beneath heaven needs is you to balance the books.”

Theme: Even after seeing the true nature of life, continue to love it.